The Kellie Fennell Podcast

Brian Pennie's story is extraordinary.

After spending 15 years addicted to heroin, Brian completely changed the direction of his life. He went on to achieve a PhD studying psychology and neuroscience, lecture at Trinity College Dublin and UCD, write Bonus Time, and front the RTÉ series Hooked: How Addiction Hijacks Your Brain.

But this conversation isn't really about heroin.

It's about why human beings do the things we do, even when we know they're hurting us.

Brian talks incredibly openly about the anxiety he experienced from a young age and why, for a long time, heroin wasn't the problem in his life. It felt like the solution. It gave him something he didn't know how to give himself.

And that took us into a much bigger conversation.

What if instead of simply asking "How do I stop this behaviour?", we started asking:

"What is this behaviour doing for me?"

We talk about emotional eating, alcohol, phones, scrolling, overworking, and all the different ways we try to escape discomfort.

We explore dopamine and the modern environment we've created, where incredibly powerful rewards are available almost instantly and with very little effort. Are our brains actually equipped for a world of endless food, entertainment, gambling, shopping, social validation, and stimulation sitting in our pockets?

We talk about why knowing what to do is rarely enough to make us do it. Self-deception. Anxiety. Identity. The stories we repeatedly tell ourselves. The difference between understanding why you behave a certain way and using your circumstances as a reason never to change.

And we ask a question I think is incredibly important:

Can two things be true at once? Can your behaviour make complete sense because of everything you've experienced, while you still remain responsible for changing it?

Brian also shares what 15 years of addiction taught him about time, happiness, and what actually matters. We talk about values, mortality, connection, discomfort, and why a life that looks successful isn't necessarily a life well lived.

This is one of those conversations that went far beyond where I expected it to.

It's raw. Fascinating. At times uncomfortable. And incredibly hopeful.

Because if there's one thing Brian's life demonstrates better than almost anything else, it's this:

Who you've been does not have to determine who you become.

In 2023, I received a message from a pharmacist who had spent almost 30 years in the same career.

Her name was Eilish.

She told me she had developed a huge passion for health and fitness after first turning to the gym as a form of therapy during an incredibly difficult period in her life. Her twin boys had been diagnosed with an incurable condition at just six years old, and years later, her brother tragically died descending Mount Everest after reaching the summit.

She had been through a lot. And somewhere along the way, training had become far more than exercise.

Eilish asked me what I thought about her retraining as a personal trainer.

I told her to go for it.

A few days later, she'd booked the course.

Three weeks later, she messaged me to say how much she loved it.

A few months later, she'd passed every exam.

And shortly afterwards, after almost three decades as a pharmacist, she took the leap and opened her own boutique gym from a log cabin in her garden, specialising in something she had become deeply passionate about: helping women through perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

Going back through those messages before recording this conversation was incredible, because this episode really became a story about two different kinds of strength.

The strength required to change your life, and the physical strength we need to protect our lives as we age.

We talk honestly about what it takes to walk away from a career that has formed such a huge part of your identity. The fear of failure. Other people's judgement. Financial uncertainty. Self-doubt. And the question we don't ask often enough: we talk endlessly about the cost of changing, but what is the cost of staying exactly where you are?

Then we get into women's health.

We talk about what actually matters during perimenopause and menopause, why women need to stop allowing this stage of life to define what they're capable of, and the enormous importance of resistance training, protein, movement and properly fuelling the body.

We talk about muscle not simply as something that changes how your body looks, but as something that protects your independence, mobility and quality of life as you age.

We challenge some of the beliefs that keep women stuck:

I'm too old.

It's my hormones.

I don't have time.

Weights will make me bulky.

I could never do that.

And we talk about what women are often really searching for when they say they want to lose weight.

Confidence. Energy. Strength. Freedom. Capability. To feel like themselves again.

This is a conversation about menopause and women's health, but it's also about something much bigger.

It's about refusing to believe that the life you've lived until now has to dictate the life you live next.

Eilish changed careers after almost 30 years. She took something that helped carry her through some of the hardest periods of her life and turned it into something that now helps other women change theirs.

So if you're listening feeling stuck in a career, a body, an identity, or simply a version of your life that doesn't feel like you anymore, this episode is for you.

You are not too old. It is not too late. And you are absolutely allowed to change your mind about how you want to spend the rest of your life.

When I first met Mary Fahey at a Wim Hof breathwork workshop, I knew there was something different about her.

It wasn't the breathwork that fascinated me.

It was the way she was trying to live her life.

Completely honestly.

Completely authentically.

And the more I followed her journey, the more I realised this wasn't a conversation about breathing techniques; it was a conversation about having the courage to stop abandoning yourself.

In this episode, Mary shares her extraordinary journey from climbing the corporate ladder and spending 15 years in a successful banking career, to the moment she realised that success and fulfilment are not the same thing.

Because what good is success if you lose yourself achieving it?

We talk about burnout, nervous system collapse, people pleasing, and why so many of us spend years living lives that look successful from the outside while feeling completely disconnected on the inside.

We explore why we're so good at ignoring our own inner voice, how to distinguish between your truth and the expectations you've absorbed from family, society and culture, and why real transformation begins when you're willing to tell yourself the truth.

But this conversation doesn't shy away from the difficult part.

Because living authentically sounds beautiful... until it starts costing you.

We talk openly about the friendships that change, the relationships that no longer fit, the fear of disappointing people, and why so many of us choose fitting in over belonging.

This is a conversation about the messy middle. The lonely chapter. The version of your life where you've stopped pretending, but everything around you hasn't quite caught up yet.

It's vulnerable. It's honest. At times, it's uncomfortable.

But if you've ever had that quiet feeling that you're living a life that doesn't quite feel like your own, I think this conversation will stay with you for a very long time.

Because perhaps the greatest act of courage isn't changing your career, ending a relationship, or moving across the world.

Perhaps it's simply deciding that, from this day forward... you're going to tell the truth about who you are.

When Nicola first reached out to me, she said she needed help to lose weight.

What she didn't realise was that this journey would change far more than her body.

In this episode, Nicola shares her story with complete honesty. From the years of starting over, losing confidence, and feeling trapped in the same cycle, to finally finding an approach that didn't just help her lose weight, but helped her build a completely different life.

We talk about what was really keeping her stuck, the biggest mindset shifts she experienced, and why this time felt different from every other attempt before it.

But this conversation goes far beyond health and fitness.

Since starting coaching, Nicola hasn't just transformed her relationship with food and exercise. She's built lifelong friendships, travelled abroad with us on retreats, stepped outside her comfort zone, and made one of the biggest decisions of her life, leaving a successful career as a Cardiology Specialist Nurse to retrain as a Personal Trainer.

This episode is a reminder that when you start changing one area of your life, it often gives you the courage to change others too.

If you've ever felt stuck, convinced you've tried everything, or wondered whether lasting change is really possible, I hope Nicola's story reminds you that you're not broken.

Sometimes the life you're searching for begins with one decision to finally invest in yourself.

Imagine this...

The day you were born, someone handed you a set of car keys.

That car would be the only one you'd ever own for the rest of your life.

No upgrades. No replacements. No trading it in when it started giving you problems.

Just one vehicle to carry you through every mile of your life.

How differently would you treat it?

In this episode, I explore one of the biggest gifts we have as human beings: foresight. Unlike any other species, we have the ability to imagine our future. We can see where today's decisions might lead tomorrow. Yet instead of using this incredible ability to care for our future selves, many of us use it to worry, overthink, catastrophise, and imagine everything that could go wrong.

What if we used that same foresight differently?

What if we used it to start looking after the only body we'll ever have?

Through the analogy of a car, we explore why your body deserves the same care, attention, and respect you'd give something you knew had to last a lifetime.

We'll talk about:

• Why food is the fuel that determines how well you function.
• Why movement isn't punishment, it's maintenance.
• Why constantly running on empty eventually catches up with you.
• Why carrying everyone else's problems is exhausting you.
• Why your environment and the people around you shape your wellbeing.
• Why your body's warning signs should never be ignored.
• And why comparing your journey to someone else's is one of the quickest ways to disconnect from yourself.

This episode isn't about perfection.

It's about recognising that every choice you make today is shaping the body, mind, and quality of life you'll live in tomorrow.

Because you only get one body... are you treating it like something you can replace?

In this episode, I explore a simple but powerful truth:

In order to pick something up, you must put something down.

Too many of us are trying to add more onto lives that already feel full. We tell ourselves we'll start when life calms down, when work gets quieter, when the kids are older, or when we finally have more time. But the reality is, time isn't something we create. We will only get 24 hours in any given day.

The only way to add something meaningful to your life is often through subtraction.

We also dive into one of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to change: setting the bar so high that failure becomes inevitable. Most diets, training plans and self-improvement strategies don't fail because you're incapable. They fail because they're unsustainable.

Real change isn't built through extremes. It's built through consistency.

We'll explore why lasting transformation comes from creating habits that fit your life, not fantasies about your life. Why you don't rise to the level of your expectations, you fall to the level of what's sustainable. And why the goal should never be perfection, but repeatability.

But this conversation goes deeper than habits and routines.

Sometimes what needs to be put down isn't a behaviour at all. Sometimes it's a belief or an identity.

Perfectionism. People pleasing. Victim mentality. The need for approval. Limiting beliefs. Old stories about who you are and what you're capable of.

You cannot become someone new while holding on to the beliefs that are keeping you stuck.

We'll also explore the weight so many of us carry that was never ours to carry in the first place. The expectations, emotions and problems of other people, and why letting go isn't giving up. It's choosing what actually matters.

Because whether you realise it or not, you're already choosing.

You're either choosing the familiar comfort of staying the same, or the unfamiliar discomfort of growth.

The life you want isn't built by adding more. It's built by deciding what matters most.

In this powerful episode, I sit down with my incredible client Katie, who once felt completely stuck with weight loss. After years of trying every diet, workout plan, and quick fix with no lasting results, she thought that losing weight wasn't actually possible for her! She came to me as her "last chance". Fast forward to today - she's not only lost the weight she's always wanted, but she's also the fittest, leanest, and happiest she's ever been. In the episode, we talk about what finally made the difference, the education and mindset shifts that changed everything, and my sustainable approach that worked for her after everything else had failed. If you're ready to lose weight and never find it again, then this episode is for you!

Darragh is a poet, an author, a public speaker, and a mental health advocate.

We chat about so many important topics in this episode, including:

• How Daragh's passion for mental health advocacy started through the loss of his friend to suicide
• His own personal struggles with depression
• Emotional numbness and repressed emotion
• How creativity saved him
• Building a mental health routine
• Normalising conversations about mental health
• How raw, authentic, and vulnerable conversation with others is so important and also so healing
• His experience with being blackmailed for nudes and how he dealt with it
• How Daragh unintentionally realised he had ADHD and how it affects him
• 'Let The Light Pour In'

The thing I love most is his openness and willingness to help others by sharing his story so beautifully. His poems have me in tears on the regular… so raw, so authentic, so beautiful, and so relatable. He actually reads one of his poems at the end of this episode. Daragh and I connected online about 8 years ago and finally met in person for the first time … it did not disappoint!

Such a raw, honest, and incredibly inspiring episode with Sophia Harris. Sophia is a nutritionist and food relationship coach. The information she shares around this is invaluable, but I think the real gold in this episode comes from Sophia opening up about her own struggles and how she has overcome them. Sophia has suffered from anorexia, binge eating disorder, bulimia, exercise addiction, mental health struggles, and abuse. She has been through so much but has survived, and is now thriving. Her experiences, and overcoming them, are what drive her passion to help others. I think the vulnerability and rawness that Sophia brings to the table here can help so many people who find themselves in similar situations. This conversation will give people hope that they too can get through whatever challenges they are facing.

Such an incredible back-and-forth with Dan Campion. This conversation was just so good. Dan is a top lad, but whatever you do, don't tell him I said that! We chat about so many invaluable topics including the story behind Dan pursuing his passion, our journeys to developing self-awareness, continually cultivating personal responsibility, our quest for constant self-development, and what happiness means to us. If you generally want to be a healthier, happier, more positive human then you'll love this one.

Check out Dan over on his IG: https://www.instagram.com/thedancampion/

Or have a listen to his podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/7sVeMIn0EUZu6Ng35JBSqh?si=bf472f6f9bda4913